Man how did you pull that off?

There is one of those at my gym and the only reason I don't use it is there is this super creepy indian guy named Honey who I always see use it while singing and staring at all the college girls at the same time.

Other then that, I cannot think of a reason not to use it.

---

---
KyleKranz.com
Win a pair of SKORA Running Shoes!

I wouldnt think it would any harm but the only thing is might struggle to get intensity up/hold it as your arms/shoulders alot smaller than your legs/glutes and back.

Hand cycle machines are actually made for people like you who can not (temporarily or permanently) use their legs. Not only should you use it, feel free to kick any able bodied person off it and tell them to hit the eliptical ;-)

If you can get on and off the weight machines, you still may be able to do a decent upper body weight workout too. Circuit training of lighter weights, lots of reps and little rest will give you a decent cardio workout.

no trouble believing that guy is creepy.... but I have a hard time that the activity of using the handcycle is captivating enough to keep any one's eyes off of the local hotties.

to the OP, best of luck with your recovery.
is there a point when you could start swimming with a pull buoy? that, to me, is the best way to maintain cardio w/a leg injury. but if you've got a cast or scars or stuff like that, yeah, not so much.

Those machines are really neat. You can set it to resist the harder you put out. You can set it to meet and sustain a certain wattage. You can set it to stay in a certain RPM range as resistance increases. All while tracking HR. Kinda like a PT.

Handcycles are a great way to maintain some cardiovascular fitness when injured, but beware that you will tend to brace with your feet - especially when pushing hard and or fast. Keep the resistance relatively low until you get used to the motion. Also, it's much harder than it looks. :p

---

<If you're gonna be dumb, you gotta be tough>
Get Fitter!
Proud member of the Smartasscrew, MONSTER CLUB
Get your FIX today?

I like using it on occasion, however don't be discouraged when your wattage output is nothing like the legs can do. Its not possible.

This is off topic but while we're on the subject :p The guy likes to swim and he would see us with our swim caps and I guess he wanted one....so he started swimming with a walmart shopping bag tied around his head. Funniest thing you will ever see. He's floating in the lanes with a shopping bag on, singing in Indian. And even though he totally does not need to, he still exhales under water. But he just puts his head under, blows bubbles, and then lifts it up and inhales. All the while doing this in basketball shorts and w/o goggles.

---

---
KyleKranz.com
Win a pair of SKORA Running Shoes!

Yeah I'm definitely going to take it easy at first to get used to it, I don't plan on pushing super hard, just want some more extended workouts to keep up cardio. I'll use the weight stacks when I want to push harder.

Thanks for all the feedback, I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't going to develop some kind of weird shoulder injury to augment my screwed up foot. :-)

---

-Andrew Saar
It is better to do the right thing and be paid poorly,
than to do the wrong thing and be rewarded richly.

I race almost every kind of race I can imagine, all kinds of cool offroad sufferfests, epic mountain bike races, adventure races etc. and what do I break myself on? Ice. I was on the way to church and had kinda slick bottom shoes, didn't see some ice and the right ankle rolled completely over.

I had put on about 2 lbs since the end of cyclocross season and I blame that...not the fact that I'm apparently a complete klutz. :-)

---

-Andrew Saar
It is better to do the right thing and be paid poorly,
than to do the wrong thing and be rewarded richly.

Why can't you swim? I had foot surgery a few years ago, and I carefully double-bagged and taped it and swam every day for a month until I could run/ride again. Just made sure to do one-legged pushoffs in the flip turns (and recognized that crutches and wet pool deck tiles don't mix...).

---

----------------------------------
"Go yell at an M&M"

Amazing machines, spent 11 months using the bike during my 17 month hospital stay recovering from a very serious right femur break. After laying flat in bed for 5 months they wheeled me to the gym and started me off on level 5 for ten minutes and I was done. Left the hospital spring 2013, at a level above the highest setting, the torque on the pedals was lifting the machine off the stand, and its pretty heavy. Was up to 3, 1/2 hour sets starting at level 10 then down. You put on the head phones with some serious music and you can go for ever, and its quit a workout. It also helped to keep my sanity, as anyone that has been layed up for that long is well aware of. Am home now, using canes, its been a long journey. Found this web site while searching the machines, seriously thinking of buying one for home, even though swimming and walking are my main stay right now, I enjoyed it so much and miss the work out.

The model I used was a Majestic or Monarch? Exspensive, $1600 range but well worth it. For anyone who enjoys a good cardio workout and is limited definitely recommend it, Hope this was informative,

Jeep - Wow, your broken femur experience and mine could not be more different. I broke my left femur up near the neck, i.e. near the hip, back in June 2007. I hit some sand going around a sharp curve at 20 mph and down I went. Happened at about 5:30 pm on a Sunday, had surgery that night, and then the next morning they started me in PT at 7 AM, basically edging across the floor to go to pee. The doctor was adamant that I had to do as much PT as I could stand, as soon as I could. So, I spent 0 days lying in bed versus your 5 months. That is a very strange difference. I spent 3 weeks off from work, then back to work half-time for 2 weeks, then back full time. Got back in the pool after 3 weeks and swam 7 days/wk while gradually getting back to walking with a limp, then after about 3.5 months running with a limp. After about 7 months I could walk and run with no limp.

Perhaps our breaks were drastically different, or your doc just had a diff philosophy??? Very weird.

---

"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

Way different, I started out with a small crack in the femur down by the knee which went undetected for a month and a half when the bone completely gave up and a spherical brake occurred from the knee practically all the way up. Best choice surgeon said was to just let it heal, no displacement. Funny thing was is that I was visiting the hospital that day and as I stepped back up into my truck in the parking lot thats when it happened. So they wheeled me right back in.

Its good to here that your pretty much back to normal and that the limp is gone, I can't wait!

Good to talk,

Doug C.

Ya, sounds like your injury was much slower in developing than mine, which happened in a bout 0.5 seconds. Actually though, I am not just "pretty much back to normal" but rather completely back. I still have a 13-inch titanium rod in my left femur but I can not even tell it is there. I've had absolutely no long term issues. I am, however, a lot more careful going around blind curves:)

---

"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."